Projects

The project aims to pilot the first health and life sci­ence busi­ness incu­ba­tor in the Oulu region, based on the con­cept devel­oped in the ‘Region­al coop­er­a­tion in incu­ba­tor activ­i­ties’ project (A78109). Lessons and expe­ri­ences from pre­vi­ous projects will also be uti­lized in pilot­ing the incu­ba­tor.

The pri­ma­ry objec­tive is to cre­ate new health and life sci­ence com­pa­nies and busi­ness oper­a­tions in North Ostro­both­nia, fos­ter­ing the com­mer­cial­iza­tion of new research inno­va­tions and the gen­er­a­tion of new jobs. Addi­tion­al­ly, the project aims to pro­vide fur­ther sup­port for star­tups in their busi­ness devel­op­ment and growth. This will be achieved by uti­liz­ing, for exam­ple, the demand-dri­ven co-cre­ation mod­el devel­oped in the area.

Fur­ther­more, the project seeks to fur­ther devel­op the incu­ba­tor mod­el, ensur­ing its func­tion­al­i­ty, and to estab­lish an action plan and busi­ness mod­el for the incu­ba­tor’s con­tin­u­a­tion after the project con­cludes.

Han­kkeen nimi: OYS­TER Ter­veys ja Life Sci­ence hau­to­mo

Han­kkeen kesto: 01/2024–04/2026

Han­kekoo­di: J10514

Toteut­ta­jat: Busi­nes­sOulu (pää­to­teut­ta­ja), Oulun yliopis­to, OAMK

Han­kkeen julki­nen tiivis­telmä:

Han­kkeen tavoit­teena on pilo­toi­da Oulun alueelle ensim­mäi­nen ter­veys ja Life sci­ence hau­to­mo ”Hau­to­mo­toimin­nan alueelli­nen yhteistyö” han­kkeessa (A78109) raken­netun kon­septin poh­jal­ta. Hau­to­mo­toimin­nan pilo­toin­nis­sa hyö­dyn­netään myös muiden aiem­pi­en han­kkei­den oppe­ja ja koke­muk­sia. Han­kkeen tavoit­teena on syn­nyt­tää Oulun alueelle uusia ter­veys ja Life sci­ence yri­tyk­siä ja yri­tys­li­ike­toim­intaa, jot­ka edis­tävät uusien tutkimusin­no­vaa­tioiden kau­pal­lis­tamista ja uusien työ­paikko­jen syn­tymistä hyö­dyn­täen mm. alueel­la kehitet­tyä tarvelähtöistä yhteiske­hit­tämisen mallia. Han­kkeen tavoit­teena myös kehit­tää hau­to­mo­ma­llia edelleen varmis­taen kon­septin toimivu­us ja luo­da toim­inta­su­un­nitel­ma sekä liike­toim­inta­malli hau­to­mo­toimin­nan vaki­in­nut­tamisek­si han­kkeen päät­tymisen jäl­keen.

Han­kkeen konkreet­tise­na tulok­se­na rak­en­tuu ter­veys ja life sci­ence hau­to­mo, jol­la on selkeä ja toimi­alan eri­ty­is­tarpeet huomioonot­ta­va sisältökokon­aisu­us hau­to­mo­toim­intaan osal­lis­tu­vien tiimien ja yri­tys­ten liikei­dean kehit­tämisen tuek­si. Kon­tinkankaan alueelta vuokrataan fyy­siset toim­i­ti­lat ter­veys ja life sci­ence hau­to­molle. Han­kkeen tulok­se­na syn­tyy uuden­lainen toim­inta­malli, joka edesaut­taa liike­toim­intamah­dol­lisuuk­sien tun­nistamista ja rohkaisee sekä aktivoi yrit­täjyy­den pari­in, eri­tyis­es­ti ter­veys ja life sci­ence toimi­alal­la. Han­kkeessa raken­netaan uusi toim­inta­malli ter­veys ja life sci­ence start­up yri­tys­ten nopeam­paan kan­sain­välistymiseen sekä aikaisem­paan kan­sain­välistymisen aloit­tamiseen sekä mit­taris­to, joka mah­dol­lis­taa toimin­nan sys­temaat­tisen kehi­tyk­sen.

Han­ke on EU:n osara­hoit­ta­ma.

The aim is to cre­ate capa­bil­i­ties and pre­con­di­tions for the emer­gence of new tech­no­log­i­cal solu­tions and to pro­mote the intro­duc­tion of new kinds of tech­nol­o­gy. The project enables com­pa­nies to apply dig­i­tal solu­tions and test the devel­op­ment phase in test­ing and exper­i­men­ta­tion envi­ron­ments cor­re­spond­ing to real­i­ty in the social and health­care sec­tor.

The project will design and imple­ment a research, devel­op­ment, and inno­va­tion envi­ron­ment that uti­lizes robot­ics and relat­ed smart tech­nol­o­gy.

Han­kkeen nimi: RoboSote­Lab — Roboti­ik­ka ja älyte­knolo­gia sosi­aali- ja ter­vey­den­huol­los­sa

Han­kkeen kesto: 01/2024–12/2025

Han­kekoo­di: J10561

Toteut­ta­jat: OAMK (pää­to­teut­ta­ja), OSAO

Han­kkeen julki­nen tiivis­telmä: 

Han­kkeen tarkoituk­se­na on luo­da valmiuk­sia ja edel­ly­tyk­siä uusien tek­nol­o­gis­ten ratkaisu­jen syn­tymiselle, edis­tää uuden­laisen teknolo­gian käyt­töönot­toa sekä mah­dol­lis­taa yri­tyk­sille dig­i­taal­is­ten ratkaisu­jen soveltamisen ja kehi­tys­vai­heen tes­taamisen todel­lisu­ut­ta vas­taavis­sa sosi­aali- ja ter­veysalan tes­taus- ja kokeiluym­päristöis­sä.

Han­kekokon­aisu­u­teen sisäl­tyy sekä kehit­tämis- että investoin­ti­hankkeet, joiden tavoit­teena on luo­da Kon­tinkankaan kam­puk­selle monipuo­li­nen roboti­ikan ja älyte­knolo­gian ope­tus-ja testi­lab­o­ra­to­rio Pohjois-Poh­jan­maan teknolo­gian yri­tys­ten sekä Oulun ammat­tiko­rkeak­oulun ja koulu­tuskun­tay­htymä OSAOn tarpeisi­in.

Kehit­tämis­hankkeessa tavoit­teena on suun­nitel­la ja toteut­taa roboti­ikkaa ja siihen liit­tyvää älyte­knolo­giaa hyö­dyn­tävä alueelli­nen yhteiske­hit­tämisen toim­inta­malli. Investoin­ti­hankkeen tarkoituk­se­na on suun­nitel­la ja toteut­taa roboti­ikkaa ja siihen liit­tyvää älyte­knolo­giaa hyö­dyn­tävä tki-ympäristö.

Han­ke on EU:n osara­hoit­ta­ma.

Euro­pean Dig­i­tal Inno­va­tion Hub (EDIH) is a pan-Euro­pean part­ner­ship of over 150 Euro­pean Dig­i­tal Inno­va­tion Hubs. It focus­es on boost­ing dig­i­tal invest­ment and, in par­tic­u­lar, the dig­i­tal­i­sa­tion of SMEs. There are four EDIHs in Fin­land; FAIR, ROBO­COAST, Loca­tion Inno­va­tion Hub, and Health­Hub Fin­land, in which OuluHealth and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu are active par­tic­i­pants.

Health­Hub Fin­land is a one-stop-shop for the devel­op­ment of dig­i­tal solu­tions for health and well­be­ing, and a gate­way to Finnish health and well­be­ing data. For SMEs and pub­lic sec­tor organ­i­sa­tions across the Euro­pean Union, it offers sub­sidised or free test-before-invest and inno­va­tion ser­vices, financ­ing advice, train­ing, and skills devel­op­ment. Health­Hub Fin­land is a nation­al non-prof­it pub­lic-pri­vate con­sor­tium that brings togeth­er experts and resources from Finland’s most promi­nent health ecosys­tems in the cities of Turku, Oulu, Tam­pere, Kuo­pio and Kajaani and the nation­al Finnish Biobanks – FINBB coop­er­a­tive.

The ini­tia­tive is co-fund­ed by the Euro­pean Commission’s Dig­i­tal Europe Pro­gramme and Busi­ness Fin­land, the Finnish gov­ern­ment orga­ni­za­tion for inno­va­tion fund­ing and trade, trav­el, and invest­ment pro­mo­tion.

More infor­ma­tion: https://healthhubfinland.eu/

The main pur­pose of this project is to sup­port the imple­men­ta­tion of new tech­nol­o­gy and enable test­ing dur­ing the devel­op­men­tal phase in a real dig­i­tal­ized health­care envi­ron­ment. The project aims to sup­port com­pa­nies’ prod­uct devel­op­ment and improve SME com­pa­nies’ readi­ness for growth and com­pet­i­tive­ness nation­al­ly and inter­na­tion­al­ly by enabling bet­ter oppor­tu­ni­ties for ear­ly-phase test­ing. The project aims to acti­vate SME com­pa­nies’ inno­va­tion activ­i­ties and accel­er­ate new busi­ness ideas. It con­sists of three pack­ages, that have their sub-pur­pos­es:

1. to devel­op inte­gra­tion sur­face into local patient health record sys­tem for the test­ing and devel­op­ment of dig­i­tal­ized solu­tions and wire­less test­ing envi­ron­ment
2. to devel­op a test­ing envi­ron­ment for VR/AR- solu­tions
3. accel­er­ate the cre­ation of busi­ness mod­els to com­mer­cial­ize dig­i­tal­ized health­care solu­tions

Han­kkeen nimi: DiKi- Dig­i­taal­is­ten ter­veysratkaisu­jen kiihdyt­tämi­nen

Han­kkeen kesto: 08/23–07/25

Han­kekoo­di: A80346

Toteut­ta­jat: Busi­nes­sOulu (pää­to­teut­ta­ja), OAMK, Pohde

Han­kkeen julki­nen tiivis­telmä:

Ter­veys- ja hyv­in­voin­ti­ti­eto­jen hyö­dyn­tämi­nen ter­vey­den­huol­los­sa on kas­vanut tiedol­la johtamisen, tutkimuk­sen sekä tuoteke­hi­tyk­sen tuke­na. Olen­naista tiedon­si­ir­rossa on inte­graa­tio­ra­jap­in­ta, joka mah­dol­lis­taa tieto­jen välit­tämisen poti­lasti­eto­jär­jestelmästä sovel­luk­sen tai yri­tyk­sen palvelun käyt­töön. Inte­graa­tio­ra­jap­in­nan tes­taami­nen aidos­sa ter­vey­den­huol­lon ympäristössä paran­taa yri­tys­ten valmiuk­sia kehit­tää ja myy­dä ratkaisu­ja. Vir­tu­aal­i­todel­lisu­u­den (VR) ja lisä­tyn todel­lisu­u­den (AR) hyö­dyn­tämi­nen tulee kas­va­maan ter­vey­den­huol­los­sa esimerkik­si osana kivun hoitoa tai mie­len­ter­veystyötä eri­laisi­na altistuster­a­pi­oina sekä ammat­ti­lais­ten koulut­tamisen tuke­na. VR/AR-ratkaisu­jen tes­taus- ja kokeiluym­päristöt ovat tärkeitä ratkaisu­jen kehit­tämisek­si ja niiden käyt­töönot­tamisek­si. Lisäk­si yri­tyk­siä tulee aktivoi­da inno­vaa­tiotoim­intaan ja yhteiske­hit­tämiseen.

Han­kkeen pää­tavoit­teena on luo­da valmiuk­sia ja edel­ly­tyk­siä uusien tek­nol­o­gis­ten ratkaisu­jen syn­tymiselle, tukea uuden teknolo­gian käyt­töönot­toa ja mah­dol­lis­taa yri­tyk­sille dig­i­taal­is­ten ratkaisu­jen kehi­tys­vai­heen tes­taus sekä kokeilut aidos­sa dig­i­taalises­sa ter­vey­den­huol­lon käyt­töym­päristössä. Han­kkeen tavoit­teena on tukea pk-yri­tys­ten tuoteke­hi­tys­tä sekä paran­taa näi­den yri­tys­ten kasvu- ja kil­pailuedel­ly­tyk­siä niin koti­maan markki­noil­la kuin kan­sain­välis­es­ti mah­dol­lis­ta­mal­la yri­tyk­sille entistä parem­mat mah­dol­lisu­udet dig­i­taal­is­ten ratkaisu­jen varhaiseen tuotetes­tauk­seen ja kokeilui­hin jo tuoteke­hi­tyk­sen alku­vai­heessa. Han­kkeen tavoit­teena on myös aktivoi­da pk-yri­tys­ten inno­vaa­tiotoim­intaa sekä kiihdyt­tää uusien liike­toim­intakon­sep­tien syn­tymistä. Han­ke muo­dos­tuu kolmes­ta työ­paketista, joil­la jokaisel­la on oma alatavoit­teen­sa. Nämä alatavoit­teet ovat:

1. dig­i­taal­is­ten ratkaisu­jen tes­taamisen ja kehit­tämisen mah­dol­lis­ta­van inte­graa­tioalus­tan kehit­tämi­nen alueel­lisen poti­lasti­eto­jär­jestelmän osalta sekä lan­gat­toman tes­tausym­päristön kehit­tämi­nen
2. VR/AR- ratkaisu­jen kokeilu- ja tes­tausym­päristön kehit­tämi­nen
3. uusien liike­toim­intakon­sep­tien syn­tymisen kiihdyt­tämi­nen dig­i­taal­is­ten ratkaisu­jen kau­pal­lis­tamisek­si.

Han­ke on EU:n osara­hoit­ta­ma.

Dig­i­tal Health (Digi­Health) is part of the 5th pro­fil­ing theme of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu. It aims at inter­na­tion­al break­throughs in the devel­op­ment and appli­ca­tion of nov­el dig­i­talised solu­tions to pre­dict pro­gres­sion of dis­eases and in offer­ing per­son­alised ther­a­pies in a cost-effec­tive and patient-cen­tric way. There are four dif­fer­ent research top­ics in Digi­Health: DigiHealth1 cre­ates nov­el, inte­grat­ed next-gen­er­a­tion bioin­for­mat­ics and biosen­sor data solu­tions, DigiHealth2 cre­ates sys­tem lev­el archi­tec­ture for health data man­age­ment and sus­tain­able com­mu­ni­ca­tion net­works, DigiHealth3 devel­ops med­ical AI for ear­ly detec­tion and diag­no­sis to sup­port clin­i­cal deci­sion mak­ing and per­son­alised med­i­cine, and DigiHealth4 offers a nov­el val­ue chain capa­bil­i­ty in estab­lish­ing dig­i­tal health­care solu­tions.

Par­tic­i­pants in Digi­Health: Fac­ul­ty of Bio­chem­istry and Mol­e­c­u­lar Med­i­cine, Fac­ul­ty of Med­i­cine, Fac­ul­ty of Infor­ma­tion and Elec­tri­cal Engi­neer­ing and the School of Eco­nom­ics, Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu. Research activ­i­ties are locat­ed at the uni­ver­si­ty cam­pus­es of Kon­tinkan­gas and Lin­nan­maa. In addi­tion to the uni­ver­si­ty and Oulu Uni­ver­si­ty Hos­pi­tal, OAMK (Oulu Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sci­ences) also par­tic­i­pates in Digi­Health activ­i­ties.

For more infor­ma­tion and news, see https://www.oulu.fi/en/creating-better-health-our-digital-health-knowhow

The main idea of this project is to mod­ernise Oulu Uni­ver­si­ty Hos­pi­tal (OYS) in such a way that it becomes the smartest hos­pi­tal in the world, util­is­ing the most advanced tech­nolo­gies and pro­vid­ing per­son­alised and effec­tive health­care ser­vices.

The Future Hos­pi­tal project also brings busi­ness oppor­tu­ni­ties for health tech­nol­o­gy com­pa­nies that pro­vide inno­v­a­tive health solu­tions.

OYS 2030

HYT­KI builds ser­vice mod­els that enable peer learn­ing to sup­port com­pa­nies, research insti­tutes, and munic­i­pal and city actors in exe­cut­ing sec­ondary use of data and usage of health and well­be­ing data in their busi­ness, research, and ser­vice pro­duc­tion.

HYT­KI focus­es on:

• Iden­ti­fy­ing and mak­ing vis­i­ble the spe­cial exper­tise of the par­tic­i­pat­ing regions
• Data on new prod­uct and ser­vice inno­va­tions, busi­ness, and new val­ue as part of proac­tive health­care and well-being also in urban devel­op­ment
• Oper­at­ing mod­els and capa­bil­i­ties of data util­i­sa­tion and ana­lyt­i­cal skills

The project part­ners are the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu (coor­di­na­tor), Busi­nes­sOulu, Kajaani Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sci­ences, CEMIS, Kuo­pi­o­Health co-op, Jyväskylä Uni­ver­si­ty of Applied Sci­ences, and Turku Sci­ence Park. The project is fund­ed through The Coun­cil of Oulu Region (Min­istry of Eco­nom­ic Affairs and Employ­ment of Finland’s sup­port for the­mat­ic net­work col­lab­o­ra­tion), until the end of 2023.

More infor­ma­tion on the HYT­KI project site and www.hytki.fi

The Smart-RDI envi­ron­ment project is a con­tin­u­um for OuluHealth ecosys­tem activ­i­ties. The project pro­motes dig­i­tal tran­si­tion and the uptake of dig­i­tal tech­nolo­gies and solu­tions. The aim is to devel­op the Smart RDI envi­ron­ment with its oper­at­ing mod­els and ser­vices. The new RDI envi­ron­ment of the OuluHealth ecosys­tem will pro­mote dig­i­tal­i­sa­tion and sup­port the co-devel­op­ment of wire­less tech­nolo­gies and vir­tu­al solu­tions, such as VR / AR devices and mobile ser­vices. This aim will be achieved with a strate­gic approach involv­ing part­ner­ship between sev­er­al tar­get groups. The project activ­i­ties bring togeth­er com­pa­nies, researchers, devel­op­ers and health­care providers. The project responds to soci­etal chal­lenges, espe­cial­ly when cre­at­ing nov­el dig­i­tal path solu­tions for cus­tomers, and in devel­op­ing new wire­less, dig­i­tal and data-led ser­vices and busi­ness­es.

More infor­ma­tion: https://www.oulu.fi/en/projects/smart-rdi-environment-digital-solutions-health-and-well-being

NAC­COP – AN ARC­TIC PLAT­FORM FOR INNO­VA­TION WORK IN HEALTH­CARE

The NAC­COP (Nordic Arc­tic Co-cre­ation Plat­form) project’s tar­get was to strength­en the inno­va­tion work of SMEs in health­care and well­be­ing by devel­op­ing an Arc­tic plat­form for the Nordic coun­tries to co-oper­ate through a quadru­ple helix mod­el. The plat­form sup­port­ed ecosys­tem work and pro­vid­ed a net­work of inno­va­tion envi­ron­ments and ser­vices. It brought togeth­er stake­hold­ers from all sec­tors of soci­ety and enabled SMEs to devel­op inno­v­a­tive new solu­tions.

Small and medi­um-sized com­pa­nies were thus able to devel­op inno­v­a­tive prod­ucts and ser­vices through mul­ti-pro­fes­sion­al coop­er­a­tion, based on the needs of the end-users from the pub­lic health­care sec­tor. The exper­tise of the uni­ver­si­ties brought in research-based prod­uct and ser­vice devel­op­ment.

To Con­nect and Col­lab­o­rate

The co-cre­ation plat­form was the chan­nel for SMEs to con­nect, col­lab­o­rate across bor­ders, and inno­vate togeth­er. The plat­form enabled the devel­op­ment of new dig­i­tal tools, dig­i­tal social inno­va­tion, new ser­vices as well as new busi­ness mod­els for health and well­be­ing ser­vices. The plat­form also enabled knowl­edge shar­ing and strength­ened the pos­si­bil­i­ties to live and work in the north.

https://www.oamk.fi/en/partnership/rdi-projects/naccop 

POP­SOTE – A REFORM OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL SER­VICES IN NORTH­ERN OSTRO­BOTH­NIA

The Health and social ser­vices reform is a nation­al reform led by the Min­istry of Social Affairs and Health.

The objec­tive of the reform is to ensure the health and social ser­vices equal­ly for all Finnish peo­ple.

The focus will be on the basic ser­vices and the ear­ly prob­lem pre­ven­tion. The pos­si­bil­i­ty to get help in an ear­ly phase is impor­tant in order to stop a small issue from esca­lat­ing.

One of the main issues is to improve the avail­abil­i­ty of the ser­vices and accel­er­ate the access to treat­ment. In the health and social cen­tres of the future the cus­tomer will receive all the need­ed ser­vices in one place.

The pop­u­la­tion of North­ern Ostro­both­nia is age­ing rapid­ly and is in more need of ser­vices than before.The decreas­ing birthrate, on the oth­er hand, will reduce the num­ber of work­ing-age peo­ple con­tribut­ing to tax rev­enue. The health and social ser­vices will be reformed, so that the rise of costs can be stopped and the equal health and social ser­vices for future gen­er­a­tions can be secured as well.

THE SER­VICE REFORM IN NORTH­ERN OSTRO­BOTH­NIA WILL FOCUS ON THE CIT­I­ZENS

We have estab­lished the POP­sote-project in the North­ern Ostro­both­nia in order to move the reform for­ward in our region. All of the munic­i­pal­i­ties and the health and social ser­vice organ­i­sa­tions are part of the project.

The objec­tive of the reform is to improve the avail­abil­i­ty of health and social ser­vices and the ser­vice expe­ri­ence. The devel­op­ment work will be done togeth­er with the peo­ple of the munic­i­pal­i­ties and mul­ti­ple stake­hold­ers.

You can fol­low the nation­al health and social ser­vices reform at soteuudistus.fi

Read more: https://popsote.fi/

This project referred to a nation­al net­work of researchers work­ing in the e‑health domain and focus­ing on the new dig­i­tal health ser­vices pro­vid­ed by Vir­tu­al Hos­pi­tal 2.0. The e‑health researcher net­work shared results and best prac­tices. It also facil­i­tat­ed col­lab­o­ra­tion in research.

Read more infor­ma­tion about this project and its results.

The Finnish Coor­di­nat­ing Cen­ter for Health Tech­nol­o­gy Assess­ment (FinC­CH­TA) is locat­ed at the Oulu Uni­ver­si­ty Hos­pi­tal (OYS). The objec­tive of the unit is to coor­di­nate Health Tech­nol­o­gy Assess­ment (HTA) in Fin­land as well as to coop­er­ate with inter­na­tion­al HTA bod­ies. Oth­er key objec­tives are to devel­op HTA method­olog­i­cal train­ing and strength­en its relat­ed research.

FinC­CH­TA also wants to devel­op its oper­a­tions in the field of dig­i­tal health­care. For this rea­son, the new Digi-HTA assess­ment method has been intro­duced as part of FinCCHTA’s activ­i­ties. Digi-HTA was devel­oped under the Digi­Health HUB project and in coop­er­a­tion with the Uni­ver­si­ty of Oulu and FinC­CH­TA. Digi-HTA pro­vides evi­dence-based infor­ma­tion about new dig­i­tal health­care solu­tions, such as mobile appli­ca­tions and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence and robot­ics solu­tions. The Digi-HTA rec­om­men­da­tions are pub­lished on the FinC­CH­TA web­site and are freely avail­able to all health­care stake­hold­ers.

www.digi-HTA.fi